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By John Lee.

Kuwait Energy and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), the national oil company of Egypt, have jointly announced the signing of an agreement whereby EGPC has farmed in a 10 percent participating interest in the Block 9 license.

The Block 9 field is located in the Basra Governorate, in Southern Iraq. The signing ceremony was witnessed by H.E Eng. Sherif Ismail, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and H.E Kuwait’s Ambassador to Egypt, Mr. Salem Al-Zamanan.

With this agreement, EGPC has become a partner with Dragon Oil Holdings Limited and Kuwait Energy, in the Block 9 license, where Kuwait Energy is the operator.

Eng. Tarek El Molla, EGPC CEO stated:

“We are pleased to announce EGPC’s first international investment. The merit of this investment is its contribution to building an economic relationship between Iraq and Egypt. Block 9 has huge potentials of oil reserves and resources, which add significant value for Egypt. This partnership with Kuwait Energy comes as the fruit of the Strategic Alignment Agreement signed in 2011.”

H.E Eng. Sherif Ismail commented:

“The partnership between EGPC and Kuwait Energy is a successful example of the public sector and the private sector coming together, each sector bringing in its share of knowledge, skills and strengths for the interest of the country.”

Kuwait Energy Chairman Dr. Manssour Aboukhamseen (pictured) stated:

“Kuwait Energy has always believed and continues to believe that the oil and gas business is a solid bridge for developing and strengthening ties between nations. This agreement exemplifies fruitful cross-Arab cooperation, bringing together Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait for one common goal: the economic and social development of the region.”

H.E Eng. Sherif Ismail added:

“With this agreement, we have extended the solid Egyptian-Kuwaiti partnership and bilateral cooperation into the region, for the benefit of the region and its people.”

The Exploration, Development & Production Service Contract (“EDPSC”) pertaining to Block 9 was signed in January 2013 after the award in 2012.

The first discovery was made in September 2014 in the Mishrif formation resulting in a flow rate of circa 2,000 BOPD on 32/64 inch choke, and the second discovery followed shortly in December 2014 in the Yamama formation resulting in oil flow rates of circa 8,000 BOPD on 64/64 inch choke.

(Source: Kuwait Energy)

By John Lee.

Petroceltic International has provided an operational update today together with guidance for its 2014 production outlook and exploration and development work programmes.

Highlights

• 2013 production in-line with guidance at 25.2 Mboepd; 2014 forecast production range of 20.0 to 22.0 Mboepd
• Shakrok well in Kurdistan Region of Iraq drilling ahead at 1818 m in Jurassic; testing programme anticipated
• High impact exploration drilling campaigns continuing in Romania and Kurdistan
• Three new high potential exploration licences ratified in Egypt, increasing core Egyptian exploration acreage position by over 300%
• Significant progress on Ain Tsila project in Algeria; Front End Engineering and Design award and signature of detailed Gas Sales contract anticipated during Q1 2014
• Completion of new subsea well tie-back in Bulgaria and facilities expansion projects in Egypt
• Significant cash receipts from EGPC in December 2013; EGPC receivable has decreased by 25% year on year
• Year-end net debt of US$246 million (2012 - $213 million)

Brian O'Cathain (pictured), Chief Executive of Petroceltic commented:

"2013 was a year of solid progress, with highlights including the successful farm-out of the Ain Tsila Field in Algeria and the completion of a US$500 million debt facility, with availability for projects in Algeria, Egypt and Bulgaria.

"We have successfully integrated the Melrose business into Petroceltic, and have continued to build good relations with Governments in all of our areas of focus. We are looking forward to significant progress on the Algerian Ain Tsila development in 2014, and to potentially exciting exploration results in Romania and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

"In particular, the planned well test programme for the Shakrok-1 well in Kurdistan should give some interesting results in the first quarter of 2014. As always, we look forward to updating shareholders on progress throughout the year."

Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The Shakrok exploration well is drilling ahead approximately one month behind schedule principally due to weather related delays. Based on current estimates of timing, we anticipate reaching total depth for the well in late February, at which point a testing program will commence, including testing of the Jurassic formation. Further updates will be provided in due course.

A second  exploration well will also be drilled on the Shireen prospect in the Dinarta Block. At present the wellsite is nearing completion, with rig mobilisation from Erbil currently in progress. The well is expected to spud in February, with an anticipated duration of 150 days.

(Source: Petroceltic)

Exxon Mobil is conspicuously absent from the finalized list of 47 pre-qualified bidders for the Iraq's fourth round of energy exploration rights.

The Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate (PCLD) at the Ministry of Oil has confirmed that the auction will take place as scheduled on May 30-31.

The full list of pre-qualified companies is shown below:

Italian oil major Eni is expected to award a tender to drill more than 100 new oil wells at its Zubair oil field in southern Iraq in August, according to a report from Dow Jones.

"We received the bids and we are in the process of assessing them," an executive told the news agency.

Several well-known oil services companies submitted offers, including Weatherford International Ltd (WFT), Schlumberger AS (SLBS.VI) and Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. among others, the executive said. The wells will be drilled over three years.

On Tuesday ENI reported that it will be "[reinforcing] the cooperation between Eni, the [Egyptian] Ministry of Petroleum, and the two Egyptian state oil and gas companies, EGPC and EGAS".

Earlier in June, Eni said it would drill 12 new wells and 'overwork' five others this year to boost output by 10%, according to its initial plan. The field, with 6.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, is currently producing 183,000 barrels a day.

Eni, in partnership with Occidental Petroleum Corp. and Korea Gas Corp. (Kogas), set a plateau target of 1.2 million bpd for Zubair to be reached in 2016.

The consortium won the right to develop the field at Iraq's first postwar licensing auction last year. The license for the field wasn't awarded at the auction in June, but a deal was reached in January this year following subsequent negotiations.

Eni has a 32.81% stake in the venture, while Occidental holds a 23.44% stake, Kogas 18.75% and Iraq's state-run Missan Oil Co. holds the remaining 25%.

(Sources: Dow Jones, ENI)

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